A clear, starry morning, temperature under fifty degrees. Planets visible: Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, Saturn. Earth, too, was visible. We speak of setting foot on the moon, or Mars, as if doing so would be more wonderful than setting foot on the earth, as if the earth itself is passé, and we’re bored by something we can and must do every day. But if we feel this way about the earth, then setting foot on another planet would only be a novelty, another unappreciated miracle. Oh, I’ve walked on Mars a number of times. It’s alright, I guess.
Thoreau’s journal: entries for February 13, February 14, February 16, and February 18, 1854. Nuthatches, chickadees, titmice, and snow.
Read the ninth chapter of Middlemarch. “1st Gent. An ancient land in ancient oracles / Is called ‘law-thirsty:’ all the struggle there / Was after order and a perfect rule. / Pray, where lie such lands now? . . . / 2nd Gent. Why, where they lay of old — in human souls.”
September 6, 2023.
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[ 1859 ]
Categories: If It Had A Name
Tags: Chickadees, Earth, George Eliot, Journals, Jupiter, Mars, Middlemarch, Miracles, Nuthatches, Oracles, Reading, Saturn, Snow, The Moon, Thoreau, Titmice, Uranus, Venus
William Michaelian 